Diffusion changes in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease in which almost all the organs are involved. Neuropsychiatric SLE is of one of the major concerns in the clinical evaluation of this disease. Routine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings are often nonspecific or negative. In this study, we explored the use of diffusion tensor imaging in assisting with the diagnosis of SLE. METHODS: Data from 34 SLE patients (age range, 18-73 years) and 29 age-matched volunteers (age range, 29-64 years) were analyzed. MRI was performed on a 1.5-T clinical MR scanner with a quadrature head coil. The average diffusion constant (D(av)) and diffusion anisotropy maps [fractional anisotropy (FA)] were determined on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Regional diffusion measurements were made by region of interest in the genu and splenium of the corpus callosum (CC), anterior and posterior limb of the internal capsule (IC) and frontal lobe and thalamus. The diffusion distribution was fitted to a triple-Gaussian model. The mean of the brain tissue distribution was determined as a mean diffusion constant for the whole brain (BD(av)). Student's t test was used to determine the diffusion difference between SLE patients and control subjects. The SLE patients were separated into two groups according to their MRI results. A P value lower than .05 was considered to be statistically significant. RESULTS: Twenty of the 34 SLE patients with abnormal MRI results showed findings dominated by nonspecific white matter disease. The BD(av) and D(av) values of the frontal lobe, splenium CC and anterior IC were significantly higher in all SLE patients as compared with the control subjects. The SLE patients with normal MRI results also showed higher BD(av) and D(av) values in the frontal lobe, splenium and anterior and posterior limbs of the IC as compared with the control subjects. There was no significant difference in the D(av) values of the thalamus between the SLE patients and the control subjects. The BD(av) value in the SLE patient group was robustly correlated with the D(av) values of the frontal lobe, splenium and thalamus. These correlations were found to be similarly significant for the SLE patients with normal MRI findings. The diffusion anisotropy measurements showed that splenium CC had the highest FA value in both the control subjects and SLE patients. Overall, SLE patients had lower FA values in the genu and splenium CC as compared with the control subjects. In the group of patients with normal MRI findings, the FA values of the genu and splenium CC as well as the anterior IC were also lower than those in the control subjects. Pearson's correlation statistics revealed robust correlations between the measurements of D(av) and FA values in the SLE patient group. CONCLUSION: Quantitative diffusion imaging and diffusion anisotropy showed early changes in the brains of the SLE patients. Increased BD(av) and D(av) values of the frontal lobe as well as decreased anisotropy in the genu CC and anterior IC may represent preclinical signs of central nervous system involvement of SLE even when the routine MRI findings are negative or nonspecific. Quantitative diffusion analysis may prove to be useful in detecting the initial brain involvement of SLE and may enable monitoring of early disease progression and treatment efficacy.     

Recent advances on the pesticidal activity evaluations of sulfone derivatives: A 2010 to 2020 decade in mini-review

Sulfone derivatives, an important synthetic strategy in drug discovery, are acquiring more importance in plant protection field in recent years because of their pesticide activities, such as antifungal, antibacterial, acaricidal, insecticidal, herbicidal, and antiviral activity. Introduction of different pharmacophores into sulfone framework can afford a series of sulfone derivatives to build some sulfone derivatives as novel active molecules. The purpose of this review was to collate literature work reported by researchers on sulfone derivatives for their various pesticidal activities from year 2010 to 2020.     

Sc,Ti,V修饰B/N掺杂单缺陷石墨烯的储氢研究

3d过渡金属修饰是改善石墨烯储氢性能的最有效途径, 但仍存在金属团聚和H₂解离导致难以脱附的问题. 提出了B/N掺杂单缺陷石墨烯(BMG/NMG)的策略来避免以上两个问题. 密度泛函理论计算结果表明, N掺杂可以使Sc, Ti, V与石墨烯的结合能提高3~4倍, B掺杂可以将Sc与石墨烯的结合能提高3倍. Sc/BMG和Sc/NMG吸附的第一个H₂不会解离. Sc/BMG中Sc吸附5个H₂, 平均氢分子结合能为-0.18～-0.43 eV, 并且可以通过在同侧锚定多个Sc原子形成Sc/C₃B₂五元环增加H₂吸附位点. Sc/NMG中每个Sc吸附6个H₂, 平均氢分子结合能为-0.17～-0.29 eV, 还可以通过在异侧修饰形成Sc/N₃/Sc单元进一步提高储氢能力. 研究结果将为设计基于3d过渡金属修饰碳材料的储氢材料提供理论基础.     

脱水Ni-Fe类水滑石的制备及其作为环保型催化剂用于生物质糠醛的高选择性缩醛化反应

合成了含硝酸根离子的脱水Ni-Fe类水滑石（Ni-Fe HTLCs）并将其应用于室温下的糠醛缩醛化反应。脱水Ni-Fe HTLCs对糠醛缩醛化反应显示出高选择性并基本实现糠醛的完全转化。作为耐水的路易斯酸和脱水剂,脱水Ni-Fe HTLCs被证明是适用于糠醛缩醛化反应的高效双功能催化剂。通过研究发现,脱除Ni-Fe HTLCs中水分导致颗粒收缩并增强层板间硝酸根离子间的电荷互斥,Ni-Fe HTLCs中弱酸性位点在糠醛缩醛化中发挥重要作用,脱水可改变酸性位点结构并增强其活性。脱水Ni-Fe HTLCs可吸收缩醛化反应中产生的大部分水分,但吸水后Ni-Fe HTLCs的结构并不能完全恢复,这可能是由扩散进入HTLCs层板间的有机分子导致。     

Effect of particle-size distribution on the surface appearance of glazed surface

Glazes have great influence on most of the final properties of sanitary wares, such as color, glossy, and surface roughness. Generally, these properties have been changed by chemical composition and firing parameters. In addition, the selection of particle-size distribution of raw glaze can affect on the surface appearance and cleanability of glazed surface. In this paper, raw glazes were milled in ball mill for different time. Prepared glaze slurry was applied to green bodies, later dried and fired. The same glaze was also uniaxially pressed to form cylindrical sample; the specimen was placed on substrate surface and fired in hot stage microscope. The glaze evolution upon heating was recorded by CCD camera, the contact angle between molten glaze and substrate was measured to determine the wettability. The results showed that particle-size distributions have great influence on the melting behavior of glaze and the surface appearance of glazed ceramics.     

The synthesis and the bulk rheological properties of the highly-branched block polyethers

Several kinds of highly-branched block polyethers were synthesized via anion ring-opening polymerization of propylene oxide (PO) and ethylene oxide (EO), using phenol-amine resin (PA) as the initiator. The rheological properties determined by rotational rheometer all followed the regular rules of polymer systems: under a certain conditions, the bulk polyethers were pseudoplastic and non-Newtonian fluid, and with the increasing of the shear rate and temperature, the apparent viscosity of the block copolymers were reduced. In addition, modulus determination showed that such polyether molecules presented preferable viscosity compared to the elasticity, meanwhile, storage modulus, loss modulus and compound viscosity all decreased with the increasing of temperature. Storage modulus and loss modulus increased along with the scanning frequency increasing. But compared with the same kind of linear polymers, the significant difference was the low melt viscosity, which attributed to the special three-dimension space structure hindering the entanglement of chains. Furthermore, the rheological properties among the several block polyethers showed differences obviously. In other words, the number of block and the content of EO all have a significant effect on the rheological properties, specifically, the modulus will increase with the increasing of the block number and the EO content.     

差示扫描量热法测定比沙可啶的纯度

建立差示扫描量热法测定比沙可啶原料药样品纯度的方法。考察了炉体气氛、升温速率、称样量3个因素对差示扫描量热法测定结果的影响,确定差示扫描量热法最佳实验条件:升温速率为2.0 K/min,称样量为2.0~4.0 mg,炉内气体为静态空气。差示扫描量热法测定比沙可啶样品纯度为99.86%,测定结果的相对标准偏差为0.02%(n=6),差示扫描量热法测定比沙可啶样品纯度值与HPLC测定结果具有良好的一致性。该方法可以快速、准确地测定比沙可啶化学纯度,为比沙可啶纯度测定提供了一种新的分析方法。     

熵驱大分子胶体粒子的柱状受限结晶

熵是物理化学的基本状态参量,在统计力学和热力学中处于核心位置.按照玻尔兹曼的微观解释,熵可以由孤立系统微观状态的数目(W)给出,即S=kBlnW,这里kB为玻尔兹曼常数[1,2].根据此公式,微观状态数越多,系统越混乱,熵越大,所以熵常被视作体系无序程度的度量.但熵增仅对应体系微观状态数的增加,与可观测的结构有序程度无关[3~5].在一些典型的软物质体系中,结构越有序熵反而越大,如胶体硬球在随机密堆积点的有序结晶[6]及描述各向异性棒状分子从各向同性相到向列相转变的Onsager原理[7].     

Anisotropic charge carrier transport of optoelectronic functional selenium-containing organic semiconductor materials

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) materials are currently under intense investigation because of their potential applications such as organic field-effect transistors, organic photovoltaic devices, and organic light-emitting diodes. Inspired by the selenization strategy can promote anisotropic charge carrier migration, and selenium-containing compounds have been proved to be promising materials as OSCs both for hole and electron transfer. Herein, we now explore the anisotropic transport properties of the series of selenium-containing compounds. For the compound containing Se Se bond, the Se Se bond will break when attaching an electron, thus those compounds cannot act as n-type OSCs. About the different isomer compounds with conjugated structure, the charge transfer will be affected by the stacking of the conjugated structures. The analysis of chemical structure and charge transfer property indicates that Se-containing materials are promising high-performance OSCs and might be used as p-type, n-type, or ambipolar OSCs. Furthermore, the symmetry of the selenium-containing OSCs will affect the type of OSCs. In addition, there is no direct relationship between the R groups with their performance, whether it or not as p-type OSCs or n-types. This work demonstrates the relationship between the optoelectronic function and structure of selenium-containing OSCs materials and hence paves the way to design and improve optoelectronic function of OSCs materials.     

含二茂铁基荧光探针对H2S的识别

以乙酰二茂铁和蒽醛为原料,合成了一种新的反应型荧光探针1-二茂铁基-3-(9-蒽基)丙烯酮,经1H NM R,13C NM R,IR,LC-M S等手段表征确证。基于Michael加成引起的电子转移机制,利用硫化氢的强亲核性,以荧光滴定法考察了该化合物在生理条件下对硫化氢的识别作用,得出其最佳识别时间为50 min,最佳识别浓度为50μmol/L,且多数离子不会对其识别作用产生干扰。这种能稳定检测的,具有高选择性、高灵敏度的反应型荧光探针化合物,可用于生物医药领域。